At any rate, Matsuzaka and Japan cruised to a mercy rule victory. Matsuzaka wasn’t particularly sharp, but keep in mind he has never been a fast starter in his career.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona — who always awakens early this time of year — saw most of the outing (four innings, four hits, two runs, two walks, one strikeout) on television.I think all Tito really wants to see from Dice-K out of this tournament is a healthy finish to it.

“I watched most of that,” Francona said. “A little shaky first inning, 29-pitch first
inning. Gave up some hard hits in the second, but they had a baserunning error,
then he settled down and got the last eight of nine. It was OK. It’s Spring
Training and you don’t have the luxury of missing your spots because the game
is on television.”

In other news, Mike Lowell is expected to make his exhibition debut on Tuesday, as the DH against the Orioles. He will proably play at third for the first time in the night game against the Yankees on Friday the 13th.

Brad Penny will fire off a 35-pitch side at City of Palms tomorrow. No word yet on his first game.

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

116 Comments

Hey, all, Bob Kramer, in an e-mail to me, asked if I, and we here on Brownie Points, would refer to him as “Bob” or “Robert”. I am more than happy to oblige. I hope we all will do the same, out of respect for him.

Okay – I was up at 5am watching the game! Yeah – I really need a life! I got worried when Dice-K gave up that home run, but felt better when he settled in. Why did it feel so familiar?? :-) Watching USA – Canada now!

Hi Bob!!! Sorry, I didnt know that you had a preference…
I spent the afternoon getting some sadly overdue sun. What an absolute GORGEOUS DAY!!! (Bosox Bri, Was it an absolute day there?! lol) God sure worked overtime on this one!!!
7days until I get to see some baseball!! The boys (minus Youk,Papi,Petey and JBay) somehow I dont think that I’ll miss J-LO, will be here on the East Coast of the Sunshine State. they will be playing the O’s minus our old friend Kevin Millar, he signed with Toronto.. I will miss seeing him out there in his long black socks….
COME ON SATURDAY!!!

What do you think about the victory of Netherland? It was amazing, I was in the park watching the game. Do you know that the pitcher in the 8th inning, David Neuman is a Red Sox player. He is a prospect with 19 years I think. Great game and great the victory of USA.http://mediasrojas.mlblogs.com

Ian’s piece on Wake is one that I think we need to pay attention to as Wake pitches this year. Tito and the FO may have had this in mind when making some of the pitching acquisitions this year. We’ll see…

I love Wake – but I don’t know how much we will get out of him this season. I’m happy to hear that Penny seems to be progressing well and NOW it appears that Mr. A-Rod will have surgery! I think we need a score card! Ellen, I hope you enjoyed your sun!

Dave, it is certainly good to see you back, and I certainly got a kick out of Zazu’s “press conference”. Iwonder if he’ll give another press conference on how he got his name “Zazu”? Hmmm…that would be entertainment!
I hope you, your family, and your business are on a good “recovery plan”, and are doing well. We missed you. Take care.

I will admit to being up early enough to have watched some of Dice-K’s efforts, though I missed the first inning fireworks. I also saw some of Japan’s first game. Is it my imagination, or are several Japanese pitches mimicking his pause with his hands over his head? It sure looks like it has become the rage in J-Land.

Also did watch most all of the USA game. I felt a bit bassackwards as I watched Jason Bay batting against Scot Shields, and I was rooting for Shields and against Bay. It was a good game. I was really impressed with all of the comments made about DP’s “team-lifting” attitude, and I love the commercial he’s in for that baseball game. No, I won’t buy the game, but I snicker whenever the commercial comes on.

I was glad to see CoCo go 2-2 with 2 runs scored vs. my Cleveburgers. I hope he does well this year, I always liked him, both in Cleveburg and then when the Sox traded for him. Cleveburg has been struggling…I know its only Spring Training, but they have been playing and pitching many of their regulars. Interesting to see they picked up Tony Graffanino. Always liked him in 2005. Was sorry to see him vitcimized by the fielding boo-boo he made in Game 3 of the ALDS vs. eventual winner ChiSox which the Red Sox could have won behind the Boomer to force a Game 4 with Schill finally getting a chance to pitch in that series. Oh well, hopefully he’ll have better luck for Cleveburg this year.

Finally up in the 50’s up here…we’re havin’ a heat wave….I’ll spare you folks my singing. You’ll all be pleased to know its the one thing I DON’T DO AT LENGTH!!!!(lol)

Yes, yes I will get my picture in. I do like the portrayal of me (Shakespeare) better than Ellenc’s WWotW. I would be careful angering Ellenc….she might just blow you out of your ruby slippers…These things must be done delicately…(lol)

dbenj: I laughed hysterically at the picture!! My husband said that they should have used the action photo, me flying on the broom!! I will have a photo in by the end of today.
While I was in favor of using Ellsbury in the 07 postseason over Coco, I do like him. He got off to a shaky start with the Sox when he messed up his finger sliding into 3rd and things just kind of lagged for a while after that. Then Jacoby just kind of stole his thunder on the basepath and in center. Timing was just bad for him. He’ll do well in KC. The Royals made another decent acquisition this winter. They got Mike Jacobs from Florida, so they are “trying” in the right direction.

Well, things are looking up as far as the roster for next
Saturdays game… Since Domincana lost to the Netherlands and Canada (“ay”) lost to USA, Papi and JBay will be there!! Dare I wish that Pedroia and Youk will be there??? OH YEAH!!! I want them there (in Fort Lauderdale…) Selfish, huh??

Ellen, “Boof Bonser” in “Back to the Future”? Cousin to Marty McFly? Or is it “Boof to the Future”? Hmmm…
I wish Coco all the best, except against us. ;) I wish Kansas City (and Pittsburgh) were still competitive teams, as they were in the days of their “submariners” (Tekulve and Quisenberry)! The modern economics of baseball have made that difficult, so that they, at best, would be another Florida Marlins (win a WS, then have a firesale)!! :/ Hmmm… But I still would like to see them be competitive teams!

Kansas City and Pittsburgh were, once upon a time, competitive teams (when Dave Parker, Willie Stargell, and George Brett were still kicking). I don’t see them repeating that any time soon. But if they were to do so, they likely would be like the Marlins (who have won 2 WS championships, but then would get rid of their players, as if they were radioactive!). I hope they do become competitive teams again. (Again, to that idea of playing against the best teams possible). But do I see that happening? No. Hmmm…

I wish I could be a taker, Julia. No can do. Sounds like a blast, though! (I’ll have to settle for another year pullling for the Colorado Rockies’ Class A farm club, the Asheville Tourists!) The minor leagues, and prospects, have been mentioned before. The closest I get to that around here is watching the Tourists play the Greenville (SC) Drive!

lol! Gee – will Tek have to be nice to A-Rod this season because of his “temporary” repair! Who does A-Rod think he is – Curt! He’s the man for getting stapled back together! Glad you have a way to get NESN! How do we get Rem-Dawg to be able to announce the playoff games??

This is Lugo here. Wow, what am I doing this spring? I’m hittering, fieldering and doin’ what I need to do to be numbery oneo. It’s like 100 + 250 = 250 and that’s just how I think. I’m like number one shortstop in the league so watch away for me.
Lowrie…he like made two errorahs and like is bad baseball player but me…me good one. Now Lowrie — he makes error but I make catches. It’s like 100 + 225 = 2640 and that’s just me. Got those numbers right.
A couple of notes though:

Arnie,
Stop trying to poison my food…like I caught the peanut butter sandwiches with the peanut butter salad and peanut butter milk with peanut butter over peanut toast served with peanut butter pie. I almost died if I would have eaten it but thank goodness for stomach pumping.

Ellen,
Those letter you send me…Ellen, I promise you that jumping off the Empire State Building will get me killed and I know that because Tito told me not too just yet until the season gets started.

p.s.
Notice I’m hitting like .553 which means for every ten at bats I get 2 hits and that shows how smart I am. Now I gotta go since I got this new Peanut butter taco filling to use on my peanut butter cake that Arnie sent me…hey Arnie…this is good peanut butter right?
Arnie replied and said, “oh ya, ya that’s right. Ya…that’s the ticket. Ya.”

Dear J-Lu: No, Tito lied to you. You have that Big “S” on you Jersey now, (oh how I wish he did then Seattle=ites would have to work on their moans and groans as he fields) and he got you that cape and the pretty red tights that you like so much. You can fly J-Lu, you can fly….

Dave!!! Good to see you! Did Julio try that nice Pad Thai with peanuts??? Mmmmmm good!

Greg, as luck would have it the woman who co-produced the cooking show I was in now lives in Asheville and says she is working on getting the show on cable access there. I’ll let you know when she has it up and running.

Gorman is articulating very well the way I look at scouting vs. Sabremetrics. Good take on Moneyball. Moneyball gives the Red Sox, esp. pre-Theo (and Jim Rice) quite a beating, but I think Gorman is right!
At one point, Billy Beane was looking to get the GM job instead of Theo. THANK GOD it did not happen! His ideas were all wrong!!!!

Good solid outing for the Sox–nice payback against Tampa!
Julia–do we REALLY expect different from TO? One of the only things I EVER agreed with ESPN’s Skip Bayless is his name for TO–“Team Obliterator”!!

OKay, I’ve safely arrived in the 2000’s… The pictures (minus the high heels) have been sent to Garry…. He gets to choose I sent 5. Now dont be cruel when you see how close the resemblance is between me and the picture currently on the Brownie Brigade!!

Robert – very cool! I also was married in April – so I am DOUBLE cool! Born & married in April! Anything special in April makes you cool! Though we are allowing Ellen to be cool also for her June birthday! ;-)

I added that one. I also already have a link to Papelbon dancing to Tessie after the ’07 victory! Stop by and check out my blog – It’s Julia’s Rants. The link is below. Thanks! Let me know if you guys have any others that I should add!

I noticed that in addition to Alex Cora, a couple other former Red Sox have migrated to the Mets. Bobby Kielty had a good day for the Mets against the Nationals. He and Kyle Snyder have minor league contracts with ST invites from the Mets. If Kielty keeps up his pace, he’ll be getting regular playing time for them, either starting in the OF, or coing off the bench.

I’m not going to get too excited about Lugo. It’s spring training and there’s no real game pressure. It’s not uncommon for below average players to excel in spring training until the better players get their timining and round themselves into shape. I’d much rather see a good steady Jed Lowrie at shortstop. Maybe if Lugo has a good spring, he becomes a more marketable commodity.

Later today, Ellen will make her debut on Brownie’s Brigade. The problem is that she sent me about 1,000 stunning pictures and I have to go through them to find the one most suitable for the blog, which will also satisfy Brian’s lust. It’s going to be a tough job.

Julia, you better get your picture in or else I’ll just have to find one for you, and you probably don’t want me to do that.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.